The Midnight Well
by Tey'Imena
Summary: In which Sesshoumaru makes three mistakes, all in rapidly progressing levels of severity: first, he (accidentally) enters the Goblin Market without invitation; second, he (unknowingly) allows a Fae creature to save his life; and third, he (thoughtlessly) says "Thank you". {Romance/Angst/Drama/Supernatural} {Sesshoumaru/Original Character} {Celtic Mythology crossover}
1. but the rain is full of ghosts tonight

**Premise:** _Sesshoumaru was a taiyoukai, and a taiyoukai's dignity is almost dearer to him than his own life._ _Aoife was a púca, and a púca's sense of propriety is... diminished, to say the least; dignity is not in her daily vocabulary._ _More than the distance of a world over separates them; more than time comes between them. She is a daughter of the Goblin Market and Seelie Courts, and he is a law unto only himself._

 _So how can he let her go?_

This is a snippet/drabble-length sneak peek of a story that may end up being written at some point. Maybe. I'm kind of entranced by this idea right now. There won't be an obvious chronology at first, because time-travel and magic and SHENANIGANS. But it'll start to smooth out.

Also, Aoife is pronounced "ee-fa".

* * *

 _ **The Midnight Well**_

 _-01: but the rain is full of ghosts tonight_

* * *

She looked up at him, her usually expressive face calm and still.

It unnerved him.

"Aoife," Sesshoumaru began, focusing on keeping his voice level and uninflected, only to stop when she raised one hand.

"Don't," Aoife said softly, so softly; softly enough that if Sesshoumaru did not have the skills of an inu taiyoukai then he would not have heard her at all. "I am returning home, Sesshoumaru. I am returning to the Seelie Courts."

He stiffened in surprise. She smiled bitterly.

"Dignity isn't my strongest trait," she continued, her voice still soft, still gentle. "I'll never be perfect and calm; I can't wear the mask that you do. I can't wear the mask you'd require of your lady." She paused. "I am a púca, Sesshoumaru," she said, her eyes falling closed as her voice rose, "I am the daughter of a nightmare. I cannot pretend at being tamed and gentled." She opened her eyes, then, and stared straight into his own as her voice dropped back down into a whisper. "Not even for you."

He cast about for something to say, anything to respond with, but she kept speaking.

"I am made to run and to dance, to cross the world over in a single, wild night-time ride. I am made to fight and to fly and to fuck—" Sesshoumaru flinched at her coarse language and that bitter smile twisted her lips yet further, "—and I am as I was made to be. I am of the Fae, Sesshoumaru. I cannot be what you currently want."

His throat worked, ready to deny it and—

"So I release you, Sesshoumaru." He froze at this, hardly daring to blink. "Your debts are paid in full."

He stared at her, mute, all of his words dried up inside his throat, as he watched her turn and walk away.

"What makes you think that I will not find you?" The words slipped from Sesshoumaru's frozen throat, an exact echo of the snarling demon in his head. From his own lips, however, the words were cool and collected; there was no emotion clouding his tone and for a wild moment Sesshoumaru considered just saying to _hell with dignity_ and tossing Aoife over his shoulder to carry her off. She couldn't leave if he wouldn't let her go, correct?

She had stopped walking when he spoke, and now she looked back at him over her right shoulder. "You might," she said. "But you won't."

"How can you be so certain of this?" Sesshoumaru demanded, and Aoife smiled wryly at the beginning sounds of frustration in his voice.

"Beyond the fact that the Market won't let you in?" Aoife asked, teasing him gently. Then that brief smile faded. "Because your _dignity_ won't let you," she said softly, before turning her face away from him. He took one step forward, but in the time it took for him to make that single movement, Aoife had already shed her clothing and her human skin, galloping away in the shape of a beautiful black horse that was swallowed up by the sudden entrance to the Goblin Market.


	2. The Goblin Market

How Sesshoumaru and Aoife first met.

* * *

 _ **The Midnight Well**_

 _00: The Goblin Market_

* * *

"Are you mad?" hissed a voice in his left ear as a hand—presumably belonging to the owner of the voice—snapped around his elbow. "Coming to Market just _radiating_ like you are? Not even the humans that _want_ to get in here are this stupid and unprotected!"

Sesshoumaru merely raised one silver eyebrow as he slid his eyes to the left, leveling the coldest and flattest stare he could deliver on the unfortunate creature speaking to him.

...it was a woman. Or at least, it appeared to be a human woman. Sesshoumaru inhaled evenly through his nose; she certainly did not smell like any human woman he had ever seen before. In fact, she did not smell like any kind of _human_ at all.

She continued hissing at him, "Yes, yes, very nice glare there but if that's the best you've got then sweetheart you are in so much trouble here."

The other eyebrow joined the first, yet Sesshoumaru kept the focus of his gaze unmoved. It would not do to give away anything to this strange female creature—that much, at least, her scent did confirm—but the only reason that she was not in pieces was that Sesshoumaru could sense no threat from her. Or at least, not any more threat from her than from this place in general.

Wherever and whatever this place was remained yet to be seen by him. She had hissed about a Market, and that much, at least, he had known even before she came and attached herself to him. It was an unusual market; the stalls and the wares unlike anything familiar to the taiyoukai, but the bustling air of buyers and sellers was unmistakeable.

Her reaction to him, however, was not. Sesshoumaru was not a taiyoukai merely by the status of his birth. One did not rule the whole of the Western Lands by mere _inheritance_. All that Sesshoumaru had inherited from his father, the late Inu-no-Taisho, was simply the _chance_ at proving his worth in succeeding the old beast after his death.

And Sesshoumaru had indeed proved himself amply worthy. So to have this female show no fear or even respect in her low handling of his august personage irritated Sesshoumaru—and intrigued him, loathe as he was to admit such a thing. There were few creatures of any kind who would handle him in any way, much less a physical one, with such carelessness.

"Hnn," was all he offered in reply before simply planting his feet and refusing to move another inch. She, however, continued moving— _and so did he_.

Golden eyes widened minutely as the woman dragged him after her, his legs refusing to obey him. Then those same eyes narrowed as he reassessed the woman holding his elbow. A low, rumbling growl began to issue forth from his throat as streaks of red began to bleed across his eyes. The stripes on his cheeks were still as they were, but his tail began to bristle and twitch menacingly.

"Oh stop it, you overgrown puppy," the woman snapped, dropping Sesshoumaru's elbow and whirling around to face him. She seemed completely unaffected by the rumbling warning coming from Sesshoumaru.

"This Sesshoumaru is no 'overgrown puppy', woman," he said frostily, flashing the tips of his fangs for a mere second as one corner of his mouth pulled back in a minute sneer.

"Well he's definitely acting like one, walking into the Goblin Market with _iron_ on his shoulders and no guarantee of return!"

The growl grew in volume.

"The Market is no place for the unaware," she continued, just as unconcerned by the growling. "It's barely a place for those who serve it! And you come prancing in the way you do, radiating what you do…" She shook her head, then looked him straight in the eyes, her head raised and chin squared stubbornly. "You'd be pretty enough, I suppose; some Fae would take you home. You wouldn't be pretty for long, though, depending on which Court you ended up in."

"And who are you to offer such unsolicited advice to one such as this Sesshoumaru?" Holding his temper in general was easy for Sesshoumaru; holding his temper when it came to his _dignity_ was another matter entirely. And this woman had just run roughshod all over his dignity.

She snorted, the sound high and fluttering and somehow reminding Sesshoumaru of, of all things, an exasperated horse. "Who am I?" Suddenly she was even closer than a moment ago, her face mere inches from his own. Hadn't he been taller than her a moment ago? "I am the one who led you from the Goblin Market. I am the one who kept you from being noticed by its Lords, Ladies, and Masters. I am the one who brought you home." A grin crawled its away across her lips as she stood there before him. "You owe me," she drawled lazily, the predatory gleam in her eye chasing away Sesshoumaru's earlier thoughts of horses.

"Hnn," Sesshoumaru nearly grunted. "Then this Sesshoumaru thanks you, however unnecessary your trouble." He, at least, had manners in situations like these. Unlike the lack of them in others.

That grin grew bigger and wider, and an inexplicable chill began to slither up the taiyoukai's back as she stepped even closer.

"Poor puppy," she said, looking up at him through the fan of her eyelashes. "So used to being the biggest power around, with the baddest, nastiest bite." That smile grew ever wider, more like a grin now for how much tooth she was showing. "You may have a truly nasty bite, puppy, but definitely _not_ the nastiest one out there." Her voice was like silk, wrapping around him, soothing away his irritation with her interference—which only caused a different irritation with her to rise in its place.

"You owe me your life," she continued, " _and_ you thanked me for it. That's two debts to collect from you, poor puppy." Her eyes flashed wickedly, and for a moment Sesshoumaru thought that they were as golden as his own. Then she was up on her tiptoes, her body pressed along his, her lips at his ear to whisper, "I'll be around to collect later."

Then with a laugh, she was gone.

* * *

 _A/N: Fae are not nice to you just because! In fact, the Fae are_ never _'nice'! Always check for the pointy teeth. They're there. Somewhere. If a Fae ever tells you that you "look good enough to eat", THEN RUN THE HELL AWAY._

 _Sesshoumaru is not going to listen to this advice. He can be a bit of a dummy... oh well._


End file.
